Thursday, January 31, 2008

I love AT&T. After all, they are the network behind my favorite purchase of 2007, my iPhone. (Now cab rides are wasted away online just like my evenings. Whoa, too much honesty.) And I also love Ryan Adams. What I HATE is the two of them together. Ryan, why, oh why, did you lend your music to a freakin' commercial. With red cell phones and cartoon hearts! Uch. You think just because Wilco did it for VW, that makes it okay?

Not sure how I missed this but Robert Plant was at Friday's Knicks game! And he was interviewed at center court by a hot chick who almost seemed like she knew what she what she was talking about. Impressive. And he mentions that damn band wrecker, Yoko Krauss again. Watch it:

It has been revealed that Neil Diamond will be playing a set on the final night of this year's Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farms in Pilton in the UK. To be honest, I think Neil, the Jewish Elvis, would be a phenomenal act at Bonnaroo. He may not be the typical festival performer, but I imagine he would draw a large, receptive crowd in an afternoon slot and it would be a big boost to his image with a younger audience. He was out of place at the The Last Waltz, like he might seem at the 'Roo, but his singing was a highlight amongst the best of the best. Between a Rick Rubin produced album and a Glastonbury appearance, Neil's hipster stock is way up.

I'm probably a little bit late to jump on the Netflix bandwagon, but I finally got around to joining the Internet movie delivery service last weekend. I hardly ever watch movies at home, as I don't pay for any movie channels and I hardly have any non-music DVDs. But the concept of having access to such a deep selection that can be conveniently delivered to my front door was too good to pass up. At least until I get bored of the novelty.

As my first selection, I chose the newly released DVD about a man's quest to obtain the world's highest score in the vintage arcade game Donkey Kong. The movie is officially titled "King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters." It had a short run in theaters late last summer, and I was interested in seeing it then, but I never got myself to the theater. I was thrilled to find out on Sunday that it was being released a couple days later, also known as yesterday. So thanks to Netflix, I was able to receive it on opening day. I popped it in last night, and before I get into the movie, I will tell you that as soon as it ended I watched it again (with the audio commentary turned on).

The movie centers around an average Joe family man (Steve Wiebe) who has spent his entire life coming in second place. He can never seem to come out on top of anything. He also happens to have a stand-up Donkey Kong arcade game in his garage, which he started playing obsessively after being laid off from his engineering job at Boeing. He spent hours a day documenting the games patterns and learning how to rack up more and more points, all the while neglecting his wife and two children more than he should have. He learns of the Donkey Kong world record having been set in 1985 by Billy Mitchell, a man who in 1999 was declared the Video Game Player of the Century. Billy holds numerous top scores in classic arcade games, and was the first person to ever record a perfect game in Pac-Man, by clearing all 256 boards without losing a single man. Talk about too much time on your hands.

The documentary filmmakers did not set out intending to make a movie of Steve's quest to claim the Donkey Kong high score, but rather a general documentary on the gamers who have become obsessed with achieving world record scores, recognized by the officially renowned Twin Galaxies gaming board. Twin Galaxies was founded and is still run by a kindly older man who both trained with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (of Beatles fame) in transcendental meditation AND loves wearing a referee shirt. In following a few leads during their filming, one involving an 80-year old woman gunning for the Q-bert title, they soon realized that through 350 hours of footage, Steve's story and his quest to claim the title from Billy Mithchell was intriguing enough to be the primary plot line of the movie.

If you enjoyed spending time in arcades back in the 80s and 90s, would be entertained by watching grown men who look like they just walked out of 1983 (think Phish playing at UVM), and can get caught up in the battle of an underdog and outsider challenging a proven champion with a horrible hair cut, you will love this movie. And you will definitely want to watch it twice.

We here at The Weight pride ourselves on our musical prowess and love sharing that with you. But I also think we share a little piece of our emotional lives as well as we need to. Its cathartic to write, and I know by reading someone like Lefsetz's blog of his own personal thoughts, it feels good sometimes to read what other have to say.

So as I've mentioned, I'm 29 and staring down the barrel of 30. I won't use the cliches of "I don't feel more than 22", but damn, its so relevant...I really don't feel older than 22! There I said it . With the passing of Heath Ledger at 28, its weighs heavy on me to know that the timeline of his life stops at that young age. One year younger than me. His life was half over at 14. Think about that.

Well, I found this list via John's Rambling Place blog of those celebrities that died too young. And all of them seemed so much older then their actual age truly was. So many of these shocked me beyond belief and I couldn't help but think of my own age:

Aaliyah – 22 years old

Kurt Cobain – 27 years old

James Dean – 24 years old

Jimi Hendrix – 27 years old

Shannon Hoon – 28 years old

Janis Joplin – 27 years old

Jim Morrison – 27 years old

River Phoenix – 23 years old

TupacShakur – 25 years old

Biggie Smalls – 24 years old

I was probably between 12 and 21 when a good bit of this happened and had no true perspective as to how truly young these folks were. Tupac was just 25? Biggie 24?!? Fuck. All I can say is remember Warren Zevon's words: "Enjoy Every Sandwich".

Monday, January 28, 2008

I was born in the wrong generation. If you've seen the movie Dazed and Confused or if you've ever watched That 70's Show, that was my calling. As Carroll O'Connor and Jean Stapleton famously sang, "thosewere the days." I, on the other hand, was a teenager in the 90's. It wasn't bad enough that my pre-teen days in the 80's were plagued with Billy Ocean and Boy George in heavy rotation. And need I remind you of the great artists who failed miserably in the 80's and 90's for hopelessly trying to embrace the synth and blasphemous electronic percussion -- Bob Dylan and Pete Townshend to name a few. Others, like Peter Gabriel and Don Henley, found their way permanently into our parents' cd collections. But at least the 80's had personality -- rat tails, cocaine, neon clothing and Jheri curls. The 90's consisted of a lost generation recovering from the rebellion and excesses of the Reagan years. We weren't sure if we liked C+C Music Factory or Metallica, Yo! Mtv Raps or Headbanger's Ball, Soundgarden or Savage Garden. It was a hodgepodge of randomness. We truly were the generation of "teen angst" -- and for good reason.

However, as much as I hate to admit it, I occasionally peruse the 90's channel on Music Choice -- for nostalgic purposes, of course. Anyway, this weekend a song came on I hadn't heard since oh, 8th grade? The song was "Don't Want To Fall In Love" by Jane Child. Damn catchy song. You remember her -- crazy spiked hair, nose ring attached to her earring. Coming back now? I distinctly remember an old friend from junior high who was particularly obsessed with her -- so much so, that he decided to grace her portrait on his Bar Mitzvah t-shirt! Yet, all that time, I knew nothing of this mysterious woman (I'm certain I was too consumed with the Use Your Illusion albums at the time, for good reason).

Nonetheless, some 18 years later, and thanks to what else, cable tv and the internet, I learned a little something about the now 40-year old Ms. Child: In her early years, then known as Jane Hyslop, she was taught violin by her parents who were classically-trained musicians. At fifteen, she dropped out of Canada's prestigious Royal Conservatory of Music to join a rock band and move to the States. She was signed for her array of talents, specifically her ability to songwrite and produce, which I gather was quite rare amongst the 90's pop scene (she was probably similar to an Alicia Keys-type for her time). Unfortunately for her, she only had one major hit and after her brief time in the spotlight, Child moved into the world of production and movie soundtracks. Notably, her only real hit, "Don't Want To Fall In Love," was held out of the #1 spot on Billboard's Hot 100 only by Sinead O'Connor's "Nothing Compares 2 U."

So there you have it -- I grew up with Jane Child and my mom grew up with Pink Floyd. Go figure...

This blog started as a way of sharing all things music with a couple friends. It allowed us to provide news, links, and videos for each other in a more fun and creative way than IMs and email. After a post about the reunion of Crowded House, during that first week, a small number of Google Search hits started rolling in. Through that, we quickly realized that some other people could actually be reading what we were writing. And then on February 8th everything changed. On the evening before, we attended an on-stage interview of Phish guitarist Trey Anastasio by rock critic/writer Anthony DeCurtis. Before falling asleep that night, I wrote a quick recap of what transpired at the 92nd Street Y on the Upper West Side. And I awoke to check our blog statistics, finding a flood of hits like we never imagined possible. I was immediately bouncing around the room (forgive me...sometimes you just have to go with what pops into your head first). As it turned out the 92nd St Y's own blog had posted a link to The Weight, sharing my review with anyone who stopped by their site. And quite a few people wanted to know what Trey had to say about his recent arrest and the future of Phish. And the rest, as they say, is [P]history. We were hooked.

The next highlight for us came three months later when we decided to publish a live song-by-song setlist from inside an intimate Phil Lesh and Friends show at SOBs in New York City. With one of the WeightStaff embedded inside the show, and myself behind the keyboard, we posted each song as it happened to both our site and PhilZone. I never thought that waiting by my cell phone for sporadic text messages over three hours could be so exhausting. All the effort paid off though and it resulted in what's been the highest one day volume of traffic to this site over the course of this first year.

I've obsessively tracked our traffic, initially getting excited over first time visits from new states and new countries and later keeping an eye on our most read content and tracing back to random links from other sites to us (I'm looking at you 'republicans.independent2008.net'.) We've reached all 50 States (thank you 2 visitors from Sioux Falls, SD) and 98 countries (we're HUGE in Slovakia!). We've had over 10,000 unique visitors, some of whom actually came back more than once! We've been amazed at how many people were interested in the Verve reunion and Richard Manuel and how few have been interested in Hair Band Trivia and Brooks and Dunn.

It's been a great deal of fun keeping this site going with my friends. And we look forward to continuing to provide you a glimpse into what keeps us so interested in music. As Robbie Robertson said, "It's a goddamn impossible way of life," but we will continue to keep on doing what we're doing and hopefully we can bring a few companions on this ride.

It appears as though Allison Krauss is temporarily in Yoko territory as it seems her tour with Robert Plant is keeping Led Zeppelin from going on the road until their joint tour is over around September. Does this mean no Led Zep at Bonnaroo? Or will they just show up as the surprise guests at SuperJam!?!?Led Zeppelin Guitarist Wants World Tour

Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page said Monday he was ready to take the iconic band on a world tour after burning up the stage at last month's reunion concert in London. But it probably won't be before September.

Page, who was in Japan to promote the new Zeppelin release, "Mothership," said the two-hour-plus concert was proof that Led Zeppelin can still perform at its best.

He said the band, which formed in 1968, was ready musically to get back together and take it out on a wider run, but it was not clear when it would go on tour as the singer had other plans.

"Robert Plant has a parallel project and he is busy with that until September," Page said.

January 28th. Henry the VIII dies. Louis Brandeis is appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court. Alan Alda and Nick Carter are born -- yes, the Nick Carter. As notable as these events may be, one other monumental happening occurred on this date as well. Unless you've overlooked the subject headings of our posts for the last several weeks or this is your first visit here, then you guessed correctly. Today commemorates the one-year anniversary of an "all-purpose" music blog called, The Weight.

Let me take you back a year into time. It was a cold weekend evening, last January 28, 2007. Two (and one day later, three) guys in a small Manhattan studio apartment decided it would be "cool" to share their tastes in music and pop culture with their friends [each other] and who knows, maybe some random blog-surfer in Australia. So, thanks to a pair of two unknown websites called YouTube and Google, the project was underway. Finally, after 12 minutes of toying with the Blogger software, learning how to "embed" a video clip, and spending a paltry $36.00 for the domain name, The Weight was born. And I officially became a "blogger." [at the time, I was reminded of the famous line from the 1932 classic Freaks: "we accept you, one of us! Gooble Gobble!" A Blogger?? There goes my social life...] But today, with over several thousand hits from all over the world (yes, even Australia), I'm damn proud to say that The Weight is alive and kicking, and I'm especially glad that we could assist those guys at YouTube and Google in becoming multi-billion dollar enterprises. It's all about teamwork. Nor can we leave out our friends at Hidden Track and Hits from The Blog for their constant shout-outs and support.

That's not to say there weren't tough times. Take for example the 2-month hiatus that occurred back in late summer. Although this had more to do with international travel than it did with a lack of material [laziness], we nonetheless kept truckin' and were able to revive the site back to old form. All I can say is, if one more person in the world is more enlightened regarding the fate of 90's jambands, the influence of Richard Ashcroft, the intricacies of Led Zeppelin's songwriting or the whereabouts of Jason Hervey, then we've done our job.

So, although I'm certain there will be more posts today from the other members of the Weightstaff, in the meantime, I'll leave you with a clip. Despite the fact that it has nothing to do with birthdays or anniversaries, it is nevertheless meaningful to me and is the fundamental reason why this blog exists -- to share good music with those who know good music, or at least, those who wanna start learning...

Sunday, January 27, 2008

We first wrote about British band The Kooks back in March of last year. I have been listening to them on a regular basis since then, with their "She Moves In Her Own Way" as one of my favorite songs of last year. In a recent NME news post, the site states that The Kooks are finally coming to the States for some high profile gigs on the east and west coast, with two shows in LA and one in Brooklyn, to promote their new album Konk scheduled to be released in the States on April 15th. They will play at Club Underground at the Echo on February 8th in LA, following their February 7 show at the Troubadour, which sold out in minutes.

The band are also set to play the Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn on February 12.

Recorded for the BBC to commemorate the 40th anniversary of BBC Radio 1, as part of a series where the radio station chose 40 bands to cover a song from each year since it was established in 1967, the Kooks chose to cover Ace of Base's "All That She Wants" to represent 1993.

To celebrate their 30th Anniversary, Whitesnake will release "Good to Be Bad", through SPV / Steamhammer at the end of April in Europe and USA - their first studio album in a decade. The album features 11 new, slamming Whitesnake songs which are guaranteed to take their place alongside their multi-million selling catalogue.

Legendary front man, David Coverdale, says, "The new album contains all the elements I enjoy about Whitesnake, and more. I can hear moments that take me back to the bluesy, early years of the band all the way through the band's musical history to fully embrace the more electric aspects of where we are now, as a band. I'm thrilled with it and can hardly wait to unleash it on an unsuspecting public! If this is indeed the last Whitesnake studio record then I'm happy to finish like this. It was a labour of love making this record...a joy... and I'm still enjoying listening to it. Can't be bad!"

The 11 new songs, written by Coverdale & guitarist Doug Aldrich (who also co-produced the album with Coverdale & Michael McIntyre) provide a good balance of 8 rocking tracks and 3 ballads. Coverdale feels it's the first 'real' Whitesnake album in almost 20 years, commenting "It's very butch. Very muscular..."

Whitesnake was originally formed in 1977, with Coverdale describing their early style as "progressive R&B." Their first 7" EP, Snakebite (1978), includes the well known track, "Ain't No Love in the Heart of the City", a re-arrangement of Bobby "Blue" Bland's song, which was the first hit from the band and a classic from their gigs. If you're only familiar with the band's later work, you won't even recognize this as Whitesnake. It's fantastic. Enjoy it here:

Saturday, January 26, 2008

If you're paying attention, you'll be wondering where Day 3 went on the countdown. Well, to be honest, there won't be a Day 3 because my math isn't so good. Our one year birthday falls on this Monday January 28th, so technically that makes today, Saturday, two days from the big day. So we've really been off by a day this whole time (insert nervous laughter here). So to make up for the clerical error, and the skipping of a day, I'll be presenting two covers tonight to make up for it.

Both of tonight's covers are of the same Jackson Browne tune, "These Days", that he wrote when he was just sixteen years old. The lyrics are incredibly mature for someone of that age. They describe the impacts of the loss of a relationship. It was famously first recorded and released by German underground legend Nico, on her October 1967 album Chelsea Girl. Proving the respect that many artists had for Browne as a songwriter, "These Days" was recorded in 1968 by The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band on their album Rare Junk, by Tom Rush on his 1970 album Tom Rush, by Kenny Loggins' first band, Gator Creek, around the same time, and by Iain Matthews on his 1973 album Valley Hi.

Greg Allman, a good friend of Jackson Browne in Los Angeles, recorded a version of the song for his initial and most well known solo album Laid Back, released in the Fall of 1973. Rolling Stone praised the treatment, saying Allman "does full justice to the quietly hurting lyrics, double-tracking the vocal over a sad steel guitar," and calling the vocal quality "resigned" and "eternally aching." From the perspective of 1999, writer Anthony DeCurtis called Allman's version "definitive". The Allman Brothers Band included the song for the first time in their concerts, featuring it on their March 2005 "Beacon run" with Gregg Allman and Warren Haynes both playing acoustic guitar and sharing dual vocals.

Tyler Ramsey, current touring guitarist for indie favorites Band of Horses, recorded "These Days" for his third studio album, A Long Dream about Swimming Across the Sea, released on January 15, 2008. His vocal treatment of the song is very reminiscient of BoH lead singer Ben Bridwell's haunting, echo-laden stylings. Ramsey was hired by Band of Horses to replace Robin Perringer, who departed rather abruptly in October 2006. Tyler served as the opening act on the band's 2007 tour and also filled in with the band during their headline set.

Please enjoy both of these cover versions. Anthony DeCurtis may have called Allman's version "definitive" in 1999, but he hadn't yet heard Tyler Ramsey's take on it. I think he might now want to rethink that. Judge for yourself:

Friday, January 25, 2008

With the regular poster of The Weight's Birthday Countdown covers chillin' in VA with the North Mississippi All-Stars this evening, I kindly agreed to step in to perform his duties. I guess I have to do everything around here. And what am I doing home on a Friday night posting on this here site...I had to beat the midnight deadline for this assignment. So hear goes:

I happened to love The Strokes and the Arctic Monkeys happen to love The Strokes too. I guess you know you are getting old when a band you thought you were too old to be obsessed with (in my case The Strokes...saw them in FL back in '02 and the show was PACKED with high school kids) now have the next wave of bands obsessed with them. I guess things don't change because I'm almost 30 and am obsessed with Arctic Monkeys now too. They were around 15! in 2002. This is the song The Strokes ended their show with back in that field in BocaRaton (actually it was an outdoor shopping mall...who books their venues? Perez Hilton?). Notice I didn't say encore. Because when you are as cool as The Strokes think they were (and who am I to argue, I do think they are pretty damn cool) don't want to waste time with encores, than fine. Too bad the Arctic Monkeys caught on. They don't play any damn encores either. Here is Alex doing his best Julian doing his best drunk Lou Reed...Enjoy.

Thursday, January 24, 2008

For the first time in Birthday Countdown history, I am posting a tune where the original artist has already appeared on this list (as the coverer). Chris Cornell appeared on Day 13 with his rendition of a Led Zeppelin song, and tonight I am posting Johnny Cash's take on Soundgarden's "Rusty Cage".

The cover appears on Unchained, the second album in his American Recording series, released in 1996. On the album, Cash is backed by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Like all of Cash's American albums, it is produced by Rick Rubin. Also appearing on this album, on various tracks, are Lindsey Buckingham, Mick Fleetwood, and Flea.

I love how this song sounds like it was originally written for the Man In Black himself. I guess anything that he sings sounds like it was written specifically for him, but particularly with this song, it's hard to imagine that anyone else would be more appropriate for it. Even Chris Cornell.

I'm speechless. Not that Stevie Wonder is signing an autograph (actually holding the guy's hand who is signing his name). But that some ass actually had the balls to say, "Hey Steve, can I have your autograph?"

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

They've been together since 1993, they've played both Bonnaroo and the Austin City Limits festival, appeared on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, had Bruce Springsteen sing on a track of their album that was produced by the same man who had produced both Oasis and The Verve...and you've probably never heard of them. Their latest album, Angels of Destruction, released earlier this month, has received 4 star reviews from Uncut and Mojo and 3.5 stars from USA Today. They are a roots rock band originally out of Philadelphia called Marah. And they have quotes like this appearing on the Internet:

“You hardly stand a chance of resisting this music. It gets you deep down where you live. If you have yet to hear, Marah is the hottest thing shaking in rock & roll. I defy anyone to present another band more representative of the genre’s ambitions, spirit and energy” – Kandia Crazy Horse, Pop Matters

I didn't think it could be done, but they turn Springsteen's "Streets of Philadelphia" into a jug band footstomper, complete with banjo, mandolin, and harmonica. Compared to the original, musically, its unrecognizable to myself, but it sure sounds like they had fun recording it.

I'm fascinated by celebrity and I have a drive to never want be left behind with yesterday's old news. Enter way too many Internet celeb sites during work. One of the things that even partly led me to move to New York had to do with the phantom celebrities that seemingly live in non-descript apartment buildings all around the city. They must be everywhere right?!? Just like 421 Broome Street where Heath Ledger's body was found.

I felt a pull to venture to 421 Broome today as I had some work to do in the area. Apparently I wasn't alone. I was shocked with the scene at the building almost 24 hours after Heath's passing. It was packed with news crews, paparazzi, adoring fans, fascinated bystanders, and folks with a morbid curiosity of gawking at where a famous individual made news by dying.

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Having split with singer/guitarist Jason Isbell last spring, the Drive-By Truckers mark a fresh start with the 19-song "Brighter Than Creation's Dark." The album includes tunes from primary songwriters Patterson Hood and vocalist/guitarist Mike Cooley, as well as from bassist Shonna Tucker.The alt-country/rock band--which also features guitarist John Neff and drummer Brad Morgan--will support "Brighter Than Creation's Dark" with a North American tour. The trek kicks off Feb. 11 in Anaheim, CA, and is currently scheduled to stretch through a March 29 date in Asheville, NC.

We're now halfway through the Birthday Countdown, with a week remaining until the big day next Monday. Over the last week, I have brought you covers by Thom Yorke, Chris Cornell, Travis, Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, Aretha Franklin, Saul Williams, and Scala & Kolacny Brothers. A pretty diverse group if I do say so myself.

Tonight's cover could easily have been the biggest train wreck of them all, in that it was a serious gamble to attempt, on live radio no less. Performed on Jo Whiley's Live Lounge on BBC Radio 1, Bloc Party plays an excellent version of Nelly Furtado's "Say It Right" as if it was their own single to promote. Replacing the electronic sythesizers and drum loops, the band comes at it with live instrumentation and a fantastic vocal by lead singer Kele Okereke. As Jo states after the band has finished, they really "make it their own". It is a regular feature of the Live Lounge to have artists play both their own song and a cover version. Bloc Party's performance began with an acoustic version of "I Still Remember" off of their second album, A Weekend In The City.

Nelly Furtado has also appeared with Jo Whiley in the Live Lounge, where she performed a version of the oft-covered "Crazy" by Gnarls Barkley.

Monday, January 21, 2008

Countless rumors about this year's Coachella lineup were confirmed today when a number of artists were announced as officially playing the Indio, CA event in April. One of those announced is the recently reunited The Verve. I have been looking forward to hearing about American tour dates for Richard Ashcroft and company ever since last summer when the band announced it was getting back together after a six year hiatus. It is with mixed feelings that I read today about their playing in the Palm Springs desert at the "other" festival, because I'm not going to Coachella. I'm going back to Bonnaroo. Very few acts play both festivals in a given year and I don't really believe that The Verve is a Bonnaroo band. So, there is now a chance that this will be the only Stateside tour date for The Verve and I may not get a chance to see them in concert after all these years of waiting. I certainly hope that more shows are announced in this country for these Brit rockers, but at this point, there is no guarantee.

Scala & Kolacny Brothers is a Belgian girls' choir, conducted by StijnKolacny and accompanied by Steven Kolacny on the piano. Formed in 1996 and winning the Belgian 'Choir of the Year'-contest in 2000, they have made 5 studio albums, starting with On The Rocks in 2002. In their albums and in concert, they cover a wide variety of rock and pop songs as far ranging as Lou Reed's "Perfect Day," Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit," and The Verve's "Bittersweet Symphony."

I find it wholly appropriate that today's cover is Scala & Kolacny Brothers' chorale rendition of "Bittersweet Symphony". They strip out the orchestral string intro and allow their collective powerful voices to carry the song, accompanied by a lone piano. The resulting sound is more akin to the opening of the Rolling Stones' "You Can't Always Get What You Want" rather than their "The Last Time" from which The Verve sampled for the original "Bittersweet Symphony." As a historical note, The Verve did originally clear the rights to that sample, but legal counsel for the Stones argued that they used "too much of it". As a retort to the verdict, Richard Ashcroft introduced the tune with, "This is the best song [Mick] Jagger and [Keith] Richards have written in 20 years."

The news that The Verve are playing in America is simultaneously fantastic for them and disappointing for me. Dare I call it....bittersweet? They are certainly deserving of top billing here in America, but I unfortunately won't be there to see it unfold. Where do I start the petition to have the AT&T Blue Room include them on the webcast?

A press conference is scheduled today for Mexico City, where the lineup for this year's Coachella festival will be announced, alongside plans for a new festival to take place in Liberty State Park in New Jersey.

Stay tuned to The Weight for updates.

Portishead, My Morning Jacket, the Verve, Jack Johnson, the Breeders and Rilo Kiley are among the early confirmations trickling in for the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, according to sources and an L.A. Times report. Full details are expected later today (Jan. 21).

Coachella, which will be held April 25-27 at Empire Polo Field in Indio, Calif., will be Portishead's first show on American soil in nearly a decade. The pioneering U.K. act has a new, as-yet-untitled album due in April internationally, with U.S. details still pending.

The newly reunited Verve will also be touching down Stateside for the first time since splitting in 1999, while the Raconteurs, featuring the White Stripes' Jack White, will be plugging their sophomore album, due in late spring or early summer.

Also expected today are details on a new festival in New Jersey's Liberty State Park, being launched by Coachella promoter AEG Live/Goldenvoice. Radiohead has been tipped by sources as one of the inaugural event's headliners.

Sunday, January 20, 2008

We're now into the single digits of this two-week countdown to the first anniversary of the beginnings of The Weight. And on this cold, cold Sunday evening after two hard fought battles on the gridiron, I am offering Saul Williams' take on U2's "Sunday Bloody Sunday." Saul is a 35-year old actor/poet/writer/singer and his talents have led him to be associated with such diverse figures as poet Allen Ginsberg, producer Rick Rubin, singer ErykahBadu, and rapper KRS-One.

In September 2004, he released his self-titled album to much acclaim. He played several shows supporting Nine Inch Nails on their European tour in summer 2005. And he also supported NIN on their 2006 North American tour, during which he announced that Trent Reznor would co-produce his next album.

On November 1st, 2007, Saul released that album, The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust!, working with producer Trent Reznor. Many of the album's lyrics were adapted from poetry in Williams' 2006 book 'The Dead Emcee Scrolls: The Lost Teachings of Hip-Hop'. Within mere weeks of Radiohead'sIn Rainbows 'pay as much as you want' plan, the album was released solely online at niggytardust.com and downloaders were given the opportunity to either pay nothing for MP3 or FLAC files or pay $5. Trent Reznor promoted the album on his own band's NIN.com and according to statistics published there, as of January 2, 2008, 154,449 people had chosen to download NiggyTardust. Of that number, 28,322 people chose to pay the asking price of $5.00. In my mind, that is not a very good ratio of paying customers, but it's hard to say how many albums Saul would have sold without this promotion. So maybe, it worked out better than expected financially. And now, Saul Williams has the opportunity to gain a significant number of new fans. Far more than would have ever heard his album with traditional promotion and distribution.

Released as a single just last week, his cover of U2's "Sunday Bloody Sunday," with trademark industrial production from Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor, is both intense and aggressive, much like the original. But sonically, they are worlds apart.

In an interview with Saul about working with Reznor, he states, "Some of the tracks he gave me took me to places emotionally, sometimes dark or sometimes new, that I have never been to. It was frightening to me. Working on one song, I was afraid because I was venturing into a place that could make me cry nonstop, and I felt so far from home, so far from hip-hop."

I am not a morbid person. That's why I chose to title this post 'Songs in the Key of Life'. And one thing that songs can be, is be a heartfelt sonic tattoo to mark emotions at points in your life. And one of those points, whether we want it to be or not, is dealing with death. Writing songs when you are happy is interesting to be sure, and it lends itself well to bubble gum pop as well as some pretty interesting dance music. But damn, is there a more intense and heartfelt subject of songs to get your emotions flowing more than death?

So what really led to this post was the first song that came onto my iPod today. In the bitter, frigid Manhattan air on my way to the subway was R Kelly's 'I Wish'. This is a pure love/prayer song to his fallen homeboy. What has become a cliche since then, but what can honestly work if done well, is the sensitive thug song. And this song works that genre to perfection. We all know R. Kelly ain't no role model, but back in 2001 this was my favorite song on the radio and these are intense lyrics:

Rollin' through the hoodJust stopped by to say what's upAnd let you knowThat your baby boy ain't doing so tough

And even though you passedGoing on four long yearsStill waking up late at night crying tearsJust thinking about those daysYou used to talk to meSmilin' while I'm sippin' on this Hennesy

And he makes the lyric: "Come on and braid my hair" a gospel, tear soaked vocal straight from a grieving heart begging for salvation. Heady stuff.

It takes two songs to make a trend and the next song on the 'ol iPod was 'Banks Of the Deep End" by Gov't Mule. It's hard to argue that losing a best friend is a damn disaster to bear but adding in that Allen Woody was also Warren's bandmate-in-arms as well in the Allman Bros. and Gov't Mule, losing him had to have left a gaping hole in Warren's heart. What we have from him to commemorate this loss is lyrics like:

You took a wrong turn down by the waterline I heard they had to drag you off the sand Find a dune and the wind will miss you Hold on to a piece of dry land

On the banks of the deep end Where I lost my best friend Searching for a reason To go astrayAs dead musicians can't write songs, all of these tunes are written from the survivors perspective. That is why what is such a morbid topic can result in some truly uplifting and spiritual music about soldiering on. To continue the playlist, I have to include such a song, which is another favorite of mine: 'All Things Must Pass' by George Harrison. Hearing him sing it, seeing how he has passed on himself, is even more emotional. I love these lyrics about moving on after death:

Now the darkness only stays the night-timeIn the morning it will fade awayDaylight is good at arriving at the right timeIts not always going to be this grey

I also included two more great songs about death: the suicide note inspired 'Adam's Song' by Blink-182 and 'September' by Ryan Adams which has the lyrics:

Doctor's on the phoneThen she hangs up and says"I ain't never gonna see the winter again"And I don't know how but she smilesAgain, I apologize for the Tim Burton-esque posting about death, but as music lovers you have to agree that losing someone is as much a source of song writing inspiration as probably any other topic. And thinking about losing someone, which these artists do, really can alert you to make an effort to reach out to those who are still around. Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips says it best in 'Do You Realize?':

Do You Realize - that everyone you know someday will dieAnd instead of saying all of your goodbyes -Let them know You realize that life goes fast It's hard to make the good things last You realize the sun doesn't go down It's just an illusion caused by the world spinning round

I'm not an iMeem expert but I think if you click 'launch standalone player' you get full versions. Anyone else know how to get around the songs that are merely 30 second teases??

Saturday, January 19, 2008

According to the Guinness Book of World Records, "Yesterday" has the most cover versions of any song ever written. The song remains popular today with more than 3000 recorded cover versions, the first hitting the United Kingdom 'Top 10' three months after the release of Help!. BMI asserts that it was performed over seven million times in the 20th century alone, probably cementing the song as the most performed composition of all time as well. [Wikipedia] I am not posting a cover version of 'Yesterday'.

Today, I am posting Aretha Franklin's upbeat, soulful, gospel, rave-up of the Beatles' "Eleanor Rigby." She uniquely sings the tune in first person, starting it off with "I'm Eleanor Rigby..." and proceeds with that theme throughout. This version appears on her January 1970 album This Girl's In Love With You. She recorded it in 1969, only one year after the release of The Beatles' Revolver, the album on which it first appears. On that Aretha album, you can find her and Duane Allman's performance of The Band's "The Weight" (which reached #19 on the US charts in 1969), as well as her versions of "Son of a Preacher Man", "Share Your Love With Me", "The Dark End of The Street", and another Beatles classic, "Let It Be." Interestingly, Aretha's version of "Let It Be" was released before the Beatles own version, which did not get its official release until its A-side debut in March 1970 (it was recorded the prior year). A live version of Aretha singing "Eleanor Rigby" appears on her 1971 'Live At Fillmore West' album which received a re-release, with an additional 13 tracks on top of the original ten, in 2006.

Watch Aretha Franklin, Little Richard, and the incomparable Billy Preston take it to church at the Kennedy Center Honors in 1993, honoring gospel singer Marion Williams. I'm pretty sure Billy hasn't moved like that since The Concert for Bangladesh.

Friday, January 18, 2008

Today's cover comes from the pairing of Glen Hansard, front man of Irish band The Frames, and Marketa Irglova, a Czech musician/songwriter, currently residing in Dublin. The couple puts their spin on Bob Dylan's "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere," with this take appearing on the soundtrack to the 2007 Dylan-inspired film "I'm Not There." If I didn't know any better, I would think that this was actually performed by The Felice Brothers with female vocal accompaniment. You'll just have to listen for yourself to hear what I mean by that. I was originally going to post Glen and Marketa's duet of Van Morrison's Into The Mystic, but upon listening to this song I couldn't keep the other one on the list.

I just have to add that one of the best songs I've heard in the last few years, which I first heard on the Austin City Limits festival DVD that I picked up at Tower Records before the store disappeared into the annals of rock, was The Frames' 'Revelate'. I can only describe the song as EPIC. It's as if The Hold Steady wrote a song for U2 and Radiohead performed it.

We all have them. Those songs that come on the radio when you're alone in your car, that draw a smile across your face, that compel you to crank up the volume, sing at the top of your lungs, and tap along on the steering like you were Phil Collins himself! And if that same song came on while anyone else was in the car, you would skip past it immediately, shrugging it off as one of those songs that you can't believe was actually popular at one time. They're called guilty pleasures, and music blog Rock Revivial has challenged us and a few other sites to match their list of their own Top 20 Guilty Pleasures. And when a music blogging Aussie asks you to create a Top 20 list, you create a Top 20 list. And you make sure it has at least one Australian band on it.

So I've spent the last hour or so scouring my library in iTunes and the tracks saved to my XM Pioneer Inno for the ones that I both would hardly ever admit to owning AND truly enjoy at the same time. You know the old saying that "one man's trash is another man's pleasure." Well, that certainly applies to music. So you can call the songs on my list crap all you like. I'm keeping them anyway.

And with my selections, I am actually going to raise the ante on the other responders and include them here for your(my) listening pleasure, with an imeem playlist:

Hopefully, this has inspired you to come up with your own list of guilty pleasures. Feel free to submit them to us. I have to admit, its was kind of liberating to do this (I hope I don't regret it later). Thanks to Rock Revival for the idea. And check out the lists from the other blogs that have posted theirs so far:

Like any true superfan of My Morning Jacket, I signed up for MMJ's fan club just yesterday to take advantage of today's fan club only pre-sale for their June 20th show at Radio City Music Hall. As this process should have been seamless and awarded the "true" fans (and I will exclude myself from this group for purposes of journalistic honesty), I will let the good commenters at BrooklynVegan tell of their dislike of this morning's events:

I couldn't get 2 tix...anyone else having probs?

This is fucked - I was logged in at 10:01, and couldn't get anything. What bullshit.

did this shit sell out already??

This music today site sucks every time I try to use it. The pre sales sell out in seconds. I was on right at 10 and they were gone. What a racket. I never seem to have problems with presales at other sites

" Our sincerest apologies for the difficulty you had in getting tickets during the pre-sale. Honestly, the truth is that the demand pretty much overloaded the system. The 500 tickets we were allow to allot for this process sold out in ten minutes. Where this is an encouraging sort of ‘good news’ thing, we’re as frustrated as you are right now.

The show is going on sale on January 25th and there will be over 5,000 tickets available. You will NOT have a problem buying them then and as we only sold every-other-row for the first 35 rows for this pre-sale, kick ass seats will be available.

One last note: As My Morning Jacket and management are sensitive to and appreciative for our fans/friends passion for the show we elected to sell ALL seats at the same price, $39.50 so as not to make life difficult for anyone who wants to come see the band...no matter where they live. Lastly, you will NOT have a problem getting tickets to this show. Our mixed emotions of enthusiasm for the speed with which this pre-sale reacted coupled with our empathy for how some folks had difficulty buying tickets is palpable.Thanks for reaching out and we look forward to seeing you at the show.Kindest Regards,"

Thursday, January 17, 2008

I used to live 7 blocks away from a bar that sits on the corner of 27th and 3rd avenue in Manhattan. For me, it was a comfortable place to find a good meal in a laid back environment in a town where that was so hard to find. On most nights there, we would overhear the sounds of country and rock n' roll music coming from the intimate live music space in the other room. And tonight, I was very excited and surprised to find this article on CMT.com providing a look inside the history of the place.

"The thing is that we're a honky-tonk in New York City," says talent booker Jack Grace, "and it's not a make-believe honky-tonk. It's an actual honky-tonk. To me, it's where people can get away, drink, dance, listen to the music. That's what I think a honky-tonk should be, and it should lack pretension."

It snowed quite a bit of the day here in DC. It wasn't a blizzard by any means, but it was steady enough that one could have the feeling that they were inside of a snow globe for a short while. I always say that it's not a real winter unless we have a serious snowfall, with school closings, chained tires, and general mass hysteria. Today wasn't that day, so I'm still holding out hope for "the big one" this season. But, I did get to leave work before Noon today, with my more skittish co-workers serving as lead blockers on my way out the front door. It only takes one or two others who fear that the snowfall will result in a Cloverfield-like scenario of chaos and destruction to make it acceptable for the rest of us to claim to want to "beat the traffic" as well. Such is life in the district.

So what does this have to do with today's Countdown post? Not much. But I was reviewing my list of candidates, trying to decide which gem to unleash, and thinking of the winter weather allowed me to settle on my pick. I'm going with Travis' cover of Joni Mitchell's "River". With its imagery of Christmas trees and holiday decorations, alongside the 'Jingle Bells' teases throughout, it rose to the top for me. Ironically, the song is really about Joni's longing for a real winter scene of her own (most likely in her native Canada) as she sings " Oh I wish I had a river / I could skate away on / But it don't snow here / It stays pretty green."

"River" appears on her most popular/critically acclaimed album 'Blue,' which was written in 1971 after her breakup with Englishman and fellow musician Graham Nash. At the time, she was living in famed Laurel Canyon alongside the members of CSNY, Jackson Browne (whom Joni would also have a relationship with), James Taylor (whom Joni would also have a relationship with), The Mamas and The Papas, and many others. Reading along to the words of "River" you can easily feel the emotion of a singer longing to escape from California and it's "crazy scene" after the breakup of her relationship.

I've always liked Travis, though they've fallen off of my radar like they have for so many others, as their popularity has certainly diminished over time. But you do have to give them credit, as they were one of the biggest bands in Europe in the late 90s, certainly influencing many UK bands like megastars Coldplay. Just last year, Chris Martin called Travis "the band that invented my band [Coldplay] and lots of others."

I saw Travis put on a great show at the 9:30 Club in October 2001 and listening to them will always remind me of that time in my life, and the many British bands that I followed after venturing away from the jam band world during the infamous Phish hiatus.

Read PopMatters' review of Herbie Hancocks recent release, a jazz tribute to Joni Mitchell titled, "River: The Joni Letters." The reviewer calls it "Hancock’s most beautiful and daring album since the 1970s."

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

So Cat Power is playing Terminal 5 in New York City on February 6th. It looks like the scalpers for tickets are a little greedy and anybody buying tickets off these sites are a bit, um, dumb. Tickets on tix2event.com are selling tickets for between $92 and $111 a pop. Stubhub has tickets for $171!!!!

Reality: Seats are general admission, priced at $36 a piece, and ARE NOT SOLD OUT YET. If You want to see Chan, just go to ticketmaster. Just be careful not to get in my way at the show. I'm gonna be the guy with the 'Marry Me' sign and don't want to get the glitter all over you.

So now that I've committed myself to actually writing this 'Birthday Countdown' feature every day for the next two weeks, I should probably get this in before midnight:

The next cover that I am providing here is from a man who was one of the best singer's to gain popularity in the 90s, though he is rarely credited as such. He has fronted two different wildly popular and commercially successful bands, in Soundgarden and Audioslave. This track is taken from a solo show that he performed on 9/7/06 in Sweden, five months before the official announcement was made about his departure from the band that he formed with 3/4s of Rage Against The Machine, Audioslave. On this night in Sweden, Chris performs 13 acoustic numbers, featuring Soundgarden tunes, Audioslave tunes, and classic covers. The show is closed with a fantastic run through of Led Zeppelin's 'Thank You.' Cornell absolutlely owns this classic, making me believe that he wrote it himself.

Like a scene straight out of Breakin' 2, the residents of 1520 Sedgwick Avenue in the Bronx are working together to save their home from a wealthy real estate investor who wants to turn their affordable housing units into market-rate (i.e. expensive) apartments which would all but eliminate the tenants ability to remain.

This is no ordinary apartment building. In 1973, Legendary DJ Kool Herc held a party in the community room of the Sedgwick Ave property where his innovative DJ style laid the ground work for the inception of the music genre known as hip-hop. DJ Kool Herc, US Senator Charles Schumer, and the tenants held a special press conference today to unveil a plan to acquire the property and maintain it as affordable tenant-controlled housing.

I've never been a huge fan of Guster. Maybe it was the bongos in their earlier years or the "hey, I can do the same thing as these guys" mentality that once consumed me in my college days. But I recently stumbled upon this clip of their satirical and surprisingly entertaining spoof of The Band's The Last Waltz. To their credit, the rendition of "This Wheel's On Fire" is quite good and Brian Rosenworcel's reverent parody (if there is such a thing) of Richard Manuel is especially clever.

Okay, so maybe I like Guster a little more today than I did yesterday...

Description from YouTube:

Tweaked to tell the story of Guster, this is a shot for shot, line for line remake of our favorite scenes from The Last Waltz (The Greatest Concert Film of All-Time). Created as a promo for The Endless Highway, a tribute alblum for The Band, this was shot in two days on a shoestring budget. Produced and Directed by D.F. Yonkman for Guster and 429 Records.

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Martin Scorsese’s Rolling Stones concert pic “Shine a Light” will open the Berlin Film Festival on Feb. 7 with the director and band in attendance.

Scorsese captured the Stones during gigs at Gotham’s Beacon Theater on Oct. 29 and Nov. 1, 2006. The two concerts include guest performances from Jack White of the White Stripes, Christina Aguilera and Buddy Guy.”

As a matter of history, founder of Atlantic Records AhmetErtegun died on 12/14/06 due to injuries suffered from a fall backstage during the 10/29 show at the Beacon. Ahmet's death led to the organization of a tribute concert that featured the reunion of Led Zeppelin last month. These Stones shows were also billed as a 60th birthday party for former President Clinton.

Giving what Mr. Scorsese was able to do with the Last Waltz, I'm very excited to see this movie. According to imdb, 'Shine A Light' will be released in the States on 4/4/08.

Fourteen days from now, this here music site will celebrate its first birthday. Speaking for the rest of the WeightStaff , we've certainly enjoyed the ride so far. Well, actually . . . there was that short post-summer unplanned hiatus . . . But just like Phish, post-hiatus, we came back better than .... um, well, never mind.

So to celebrate this two-week period, serving as a countdown to the big day, on each of the next 14 days I will be providing my top 14 favorite cover songs found on The Hype Machine. These songs will be in no particular order, just that they rose above the rest. And I've listened to quite a lot of them. Playing someone else's tune is always a gamble, but when executed well, it can be the highlight of either a concert or recording.

Let's get this started with Thom Yorke's solo take on Neil Young's 'After The Gold Rush' from the 2002 Bridge School Benefit in Mountain View, CA. Thom Yorke sounds eerily like a younger Neil Young here and seems to really go for it in this performance, as Neil was most certainly listening. Covering a Neil Young song at a concert where the man himself would later make an appearance is a serious risk, but when you front a little band called Radiohead, I think you know something about taking chances. I should also add, that I had the esteemed pleasure of being at the Shoreline Amphitheater outside San Francisco on this October night and listening to this track sounds just as good now as it did when I first heard it over five years ago.

I never saw the Stones at Altamont. I didn't make the trip to Watkins Glen to see the Allmans on a triple bill from heaven. I never made it to the East Village to go to the Fillmore East. Why? Because I wasn't even born yet. No punk scene, acid tests, or Madchester Factory Records parties for me to tell my kids about. But I did get to live through the Mid-Atlantic jam scene of the mid-to-late 1990's with all of the interest, fervor, and love that I could muster as a teenager in and around Baltimore, Washington DC, and ultimately at University of Maryland in College Park.

The one sad fact of being a fan of the jam scene of that time is that so many of the bands I would use fake IDs to see are no more. They have entered the Jamband Graveyard. I'm guessing most of the musicians themselves were in their late teen years or early twenties when they were hitting the road to play for the tie-dyed and fraternity kid faithful who were looking for jam music in all corners whenever Phish wasn't in town. And "real life" caught up to them.

Thankfully, a bunch of the groups are still around. Bands I saw over a decade ago were: Widespread Panic, moe., Keller Williams, Disco Biscuits, MMW, and Galactic. But I can't go see God Street bust out a Wendy into Stone House. No more Gibb Droll introducing me to The Meters with a Cissy Strut encore. I guess like so many of the friends I had around that time that I no longer speak to, these bands are nothing but memories. Through good times, bad times, these were the soundtracks to my youth. Do iPods play Maxell tapes??

Sunday, January 13, 2008

I had heard the name before (who could really forget it) but had not heard his music. On a new EP, he records stripped down acoustic covers of some of the favorite tunes of the writers of this site. On the EP, he tackles The Band's 'It Makes No Difference' in a version that I believe exceeds the hipster friendly take of My Morning Jacket. He also records Such A Night, made famous by Dr. John during his appearance at The Last Waltz. Donovan's take on Dylan's Dont Think Twice It's Alright is on the album as well, and all three are here for your listening pleasure.

Also included on this 6 track EP, titled Recycled Recipes, are covers of tracks by Wilco, Bruce Cockburn, and Creedence Clearwater Revival.

I certainly plan on checking out his original material, having now heard these excellent cover versions. I think you will enjoy them too.